Of Advani & Akhilesh: Studies in irrelevance

The last few days have been a sort of advertisement of the growing irrelevance of two politicians at the opposite ends of the age spectrum- LK Advani and Akhilesh Yadav. The former represents a father figure for whom there is no longer any real need and the latter a son who is finding that inherited power can be an illusory thing. In both cases, the humiliation faced is very public- in Advani’s case he has ensured that it is so, while in Akhilesh’s case, he seems to have little control over even this aspect of his life.

The irony of the party’s father figure become its leading voice of dissent gets magnified in the light of the nature of the issues that Advani is raising. The argument that he makes- that the announcement of Modi as a prime ministerial candidate will limit BJP’s chances of finding alliance partners is hardly a far-fetched one; indeed the same has been argued by many independent observers. His objections have often been characterised as coming from a place of personal ambition, but this seems to be a little unfair. Whatever his faults, Advani is enough of a realist to know that he stands no real chance of being anointed as the party’s chosen representative for the PM’s slot. Indeed if he were personally ambitious, it might to have been wiser to go the way many say Rajnath Singh has- support Modi early enough so as to keep himself in contention for the top job in case Modi’s candidature comes a cropper at the hands of potential alliance partners.

The problem faced by Advani has little to do with the nature of his objections, for the truth is that whatever they might have been, they would have been ignored. What has changed about the BJP’s relationship is Advani is the nature of his utility. He is today useful only as a ceremonial presence; he is figure much more than father, something he hasn’t quite come to terms with. He is a photograph on the party’s wall, not a flesh-and-blood leader. The need from Advani is to look the part and beam approvingly at whatever the party chooses to do. If he were to do that, he would be ritually lionised, but even then he would no longer be listened to. Today, the worst that Advani can do is to be an embarrassment, he can no longer be a hurdle.

In Akhilesh’s case, the baton that he was allegedly handed over turned out to made of something vaporous. In retrospect, it would seem that for Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh was nothing more than a form of political insurance that he took out in a moment of insecurity. He has handed over the designation, without ceding any power. Surrounded by heavyweights that look upon him with patronising contempt, Akhilesh is out of his depth, and in the UP the depth really does really go murky and deep. Akhilesh Yadav is to Mulayam what Manmohan Singh is to Sonia Gandhi; the difference is that Singh is much more easily expendable than is Akhilesh. In Singh’s case, an absence of personal ambition, makes it possible to play the role of a stand-in leader without too much obvious distress. In Akhilesh’s case, being made a patsy by his own father cannot possibly be easy for he has a political future to worry about.

The handing over of power from one generation to another has always been a messy affair , the dynamics of which become more complex when the transition occurs within a family. Barring instances where the change is forced by external events, like in the case of Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot, in most other cases the hand over is difficult and often unsuccessful. Omar Abdullah might be an exception to this, but he needed to firmly push his father out of the frame in order to establish himself, something that Akhilesh is in no position to do. In other cases, whether it is Karunanidhi, Bal Thackeray or Sharad Pawar, the move from one generation to another is an edgy business, full of sub-text, seething with repressed anger and distrust.

Advani’s problem is that in spite of being principally responsible for BJP’s emergence as a credible political force, he was never the fount of power. That position always belonged to the RSS, which manages to continue have a curious hold over the party, in spite of living in something of a timewarp. Advani had no inheritance that he could pass on, no asset base that could be transferred or withheld from the next generation. Those that do, like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Pawar and Karunanidhi find it tempting to hang on to their source of power, thereby underlining their own importance at the cost of the very people they anoint as successors.

Increasingly, it is becoming clear that in spite of the proliferation of so many political dynasties, the act of transferring power and the source which generates it is such that most power shifts will be restricted to appearances. The next generation will need to earn power, rather than wait to inherit it- Narendra Modi’s ascension to the top job within the BJP underlines this fact. His victory is in many ways the triumph of the party cadre which would not have brooked another leader being foisted on them. A generational shift is underway, but even as an Advani gives way to a Modi, the plight of Akhilesh tells us that inheriting power that isn’t earned can be particularly burdensome, something Rahul Gandhi might do well to remember.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Santosh Desai is a leading ad professional. He says he has strayed into writing entirely by accident, and for this he is "grateful". "City City Bang Bang" looks at contemporary Indian society from an everyday vantage point. It covers issues big and small, tends where possible to avoid judgmental positions, and tries instead to understand what makes things the way they are. The desire to look at things with innocent doubt helps in the emergence of fresh perspectives and hopefully, of clarity of a new kind.

Santosh Desai is a leading ad professional. He says he has strayed into writing entirely by accident, and for this he is "grateful". "City City Bang Bang" l. . .